At World's End
by geekygamergirl
Summary: Alternate universe. The classic fight between Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf and the ever-raging battle between good and evil, with a medieval twist. When vicious demons come flooding onto planet Hyrulia by some unknown cause, our heroes are forced to traverse the land and travel through time in order to save the world from ultimate demise. Demon-fighting, drama, romance, and suspense!
1. Chapter One

_Disclaimer: I do not own Legend of Zelda, its ideas, or its characters. I do love it though :)_

Lorek

The sun was stooping low in the sky now, casting long shadows amidst the branches and the trees. Tall shadows crept up the sides of trees as the forest began to surrender itself to darkness. _Time to go._

Lorek sat up and stretched, yawning. He'd been sitting up in this nook between a branch and the tree's trunk for hours now, waiting for some game to pass him by. He had a couple of pigeons hooked on his belt, but he wished he'd done a little better. He'd gotten a late start to hunting today, but he thought he'd be able to make up for it. _If only a deer would come by…_

Lorek settled back into his tree, deciding to wait a little bit longer. The only thing waiting for him at home was dinner with his mother, Bryn, and her boyfriend Arceus. Arceus didn't eat with them often, so whenever he was over his mother had to make a fuss about everything. Bryn was always in a bad mood, complaining about her swollen ankles and her "grotesquely huge" stomach. _Well what did you expect when you got pregnant? That a baby growing inside you just wouldn't require room? _

In truth, the only part of dinner Lorek was really dreading was the Arceus part. Even though Bryn's belly looked like it was about to pop and the healer had told her the baby would be coming any day, Arceus was rarely around. He was always off practicing with his blade, or out hunting, or… well, doing anything except spend time with his future child's mother. And to top it off, he and Lorek had never really gotten around great in the first place so the negligent father act was making Lorek want to snap.

The darkness in the forest was spreading, the pink and orange sky becoming less visible through the trees. Lorek knew his way around the forest in the dark, but his mother would be mad if he got home too late. He slung his bow over his shoulder, slid himself to the edge of the branch, but froze when he began to hear rustling in the bushes. Slowly, silently, he climbed back up onto the branch to look at the source of the sound. He was about to draw his bow, but a flash of jet black hair made him stop. _A girl?_

She wasn't anyone from his tribe. She also didn't look like anyone he'd seen from his sister tribe. _A Blackwood? No, she wouldn't be this far south. _Besides, her skin tone was all wrong, it was a nut brown and the Blackwoods were relatively pale. She seemed to be in a rush to get somewhere. Her clothes were dirty and torn in a few places, and small scrapes on her arms gleamed red with blood. _Where is she off to in such a hurry?_

Lorek slowly lowered himself down the tree, never taking his eyes off of her. He tried to follow her brisk pace, but with all the leaves on the ground his footsteps were crunchy and noisy. Lorek was used to sitting in a tree _waiting_ for his targets and sniping them down… he wasn't quite so accustomed to _chasing_ his targets. He followed her as she darted through the trees, but she was moving too quickly, and he couldn't keep up without making too much noise. He traced where he thought she had gone to a clearing, but the slim dark-haired girl was nowhere in sight. _Damn. I wonder who that was anyway?_

Suddenly, he felt the coldness and sharpness of steel pressing against his throat. "You follow me," she stated, pushing the tip of her dagger slightly into his neck. Her voice was thick with some accent Lorek didn't recognize. "Who are you? Who are your people?"

"Lorek. From the Black Raven tribe. And who are you?"

She didn't answer. Instead she replied, "You lie. I have never heard of… Black Raven."

"I guess we try to keep a low profile."

She didn't respond. A long silence passed, and a chilly wind began to blow. The girl had removed the blade from the surface of his skin, but it hovered only inches away. She seemed to be thinking. Lorek began, "You know, we could-"

"Quiet!" she whispered fervently in his ear. He heard the sound of branches being pushed aside, as someone entered the clearing. Heavy footsteps pushed smashed through the brush, and a large, big-bellied man entered the clearing. His eyes fell on the two of them, and he immediately slid his claymore from its sheath. "Hey, let him go." _Man Gordo, am I happy to see you. _Gordo was a big man, with thick arms and legs as thick as tree trunks and a broad chest. Lorek remembered Gordo from his childhood when he was slimmer, back when he was more muscle and less fat. Now, that was reversed.

The girl didn't moved, not seeming threatened. Truth be told, when Gordo's cheeks became flushed he looked more like a jolly, big-bellied Santa than a swordsman, but his strength made him deadly with his two-handed claymore.

The girl, sensing she'd lost the battle, thrust Lorek forward, dagger still in hand as she sprinted through the woods. Almost immediately her foot caught a root, and she fell forward on her face. Lorek seized the opportunity to climb on top of her and pin her down, pulling two struggling wrists together to her lower back. Gordo lumbered over. "Who do we have here?"

Lorek shrugged. "Don't know. Won't tell me her name. She doesn't sound like she's from around here."

"Doesn't look like she's from around here either. Guess you're coming back with us," Gordo snickered, pulling some rope from his waistband to tie her wrists with.

When Lorek got up and allowed her to stand up, Gordo gave him a hard slap on the back. "Came at just the right time didn't I?"

The dark-haired girl in front of him stared Lorek down with cool icy blue eyes, her small lips tightly pursed. He had a feeling that she wasn't afraid to hurt someone. "Yeah," Lorek said, "you really did."

When Lorek and Gordo got back to the village, night had already fallen. They put the girl in the confines of a hollowed-out tree, closed its wooden gates, and wrapped them up tightly with rope. "We'll figure out what to do with you in the morning," Lorek told her. They hadn't gotten a word out of her the whole walk home- she seemed determined to stay silent. She took every step with her chin held high and took every effort to keep her eyes averted from her catchers, but Lorek had caught her glance once and spotted something in those cold blue eyes that almost looked like fear. With the deep earthy tones of her skin blending into the night, her unsettling blue eyes stood out from behind the bars of the cell.

As soon as they'd walked a few steps away, Gordo grunted, "What a weird girl." Lorek was pretty sure she could still hear them, so he didn't respond.

"Goodnight Gordo," he called as Gordo ascended the ladder pressed up against one of the thick trees across from the tree cell. "Goodnight Lorek… try not to get attacked by any more strange ladies tonight," he chuckled. Lorek could hear his soft laughter as he climbed up into his shack embedded in the trees. Lorek wove his way through the densely packed trees to his own treehome, climbing up just beneath a thick layer of the forest's canopy. He pushed aside the woven tangle of branches covering the entryway to reveal his mom and Bryn sleeping in the back of a small wooden hovel. He could hear Bryn's soft snoring. _And no Arceus by her side… what a shock. _What was Lorek expecting, the father of Bryn's child to actually try to be by her side when she went into labor? _If he's not in this kid's life after it's born, I'm going to give him a piece of my mind. _

Lorek let the woven vines fall back in place, crossing a small rope bridge between trees to the small wooden shack he called home. He crawled into his bed, pulled a thin layer of furs over him, and thought about his near-death experience with this strange girl and her dagger.

When he awoke the next morning startled by shouts, his room filled with heavy gray smoke, Lorek found himself in a near-death experience all over again.

_Author's note: Link, Zelda, Ganon, and all your favorite Legend of Zelda characters will have different names. Why? Well maybe I don't want to give up the identity of my characters so easily… ;)_

_Anyway, I haven't done this in a long time, so please be critical in your reviews! I want to get better!_


	2. Chapter Two

Gordo

Gordo awoke to screams and shouts, cries and wails, fire and smoke. The air was heavy and thick with smoke, and his eyes burned. He was usually groggy in the morning, and slow to wake up. Today, he could practically feel the adrenaline burst through his veins as he leapt to his feet. He immediately began coughing intensely, and lowered his head and torso as he went to the exit of his treehome. _What is going on?_

Outside the smoke was all around him. Flames were scattered all over their village, consuming trees, huts, bridges, grass- anything in their way. The bridge that connected his tree to the rest of the village had already become overcome with flames, so Gordo descended the rope ladder at his home's entrance to the forest floor. He heard a devastating crack and crash as one of the trees in the village tumbled to the ground, consumed by flames. He felt is stomach drop.

From ground level, it was hard to see anything but smoke. The homes and buildings in their village were all made up of wood, doors were made from vines, and the bridges and ladders that connected it all were made up of wood and rope. It was a fire's dream playhouse.

Their tribe was always careful with fires- they never lit flames in their homes, and cooked all their meals on the forest floor. What had gone wrong?

Gordo didn't have time to ponder as a branch came crashing down beside him. He was about to escape the smoke when he heard screams coming from a nearby tree. He ran towards it, coughing the whole way and his eyes streaming. When he ascended the ladder he saw flames already crawling their way towards the treehome across the nearby bridge. He pushed aside the vines in the entrance.

His eyes were struggling to adjust to the dim lighting, already agitated by smoke. Gordo rubbed them, and two figures slowly came into view before him- a teenage girl hunched over, trying to drag a smaller old women out of the house. "Lyanna," he coughed, recognizing her as she dimly came into view. He hurried over and took the old woman she was struggling with, heaving her onto his back. Gordo was strong and the woman was small, but she was still heavy and since she was unconscious it was like carrying deadweight. "Get out," he grunted at Lyanna between fits of coughing. She quickly complied, waiting at the bottom of the ladder for him. Gordo began to head away from the village and smoke but she stopped him.

"Not breathing," she managed to say between coughs as she took the old woman from his back and laid her on the ground. She immediately began doing CPR. Gordo recognized the woman now- she was Greta, the tribe's healer.

Lyanna continued CPR as the branches and trees creaked and cracked overhead. She continued diligently, but to no avail. Gordo heard a dangerously loud crack overhead, and watched as the treehome Lyanna and Greta lived in was swallowed up in flames.

"Lyanna, we need to get to safer ground," Gordo told her. The girl shook her head and continued persistently. "Lyanna," Gordo warned, but the girl wouldn't move. Gordo watched overhead as the branch above them shot up in flames. It wouldn't hold much longer…

Gordo grabbed the girl, pulling her quickly across the grass just as the huge flaming branch came crashing down, crushing Greta. Lyanna screamed as Greta began to light on fire. "Grandma!" She began running towards the branch, but Gordo grabbed the struggling girl and hoisted her over his shoulder. "It's too late," he muttered softly.

Lyanna had given up her struggles and tears were streaming down her cheeks silently as they approached a nearby clearing where some of the other villagers had gathered. Gordo had only begun scanning through the survivors before he was tackled in a hug by his brother, Boros. "Mom? Dad?" Gordo asked immediately, and Boros jerked his head over to where his parents were sitting beneath a tree. Gordo let out a sigh of relief, as Lyanna ran off to find her family and friends. "Where's Lorek?" he asked Boros. Boros pointed to where Bryn, Rhyella, Lorek, and Arceus were clustered.

When he approached the group, Lorek immediately embraced him in a hug. "Damn man, I was worried… when I looked up in your treehome and you weren't there I thought…" his voice trailed off. "We were so worried," Lorek's mom Rhyella added, wrapping him up in a hug. Bryn even looked relieved, and touched his arm gently. Arceus just stood there silently, brooding.

"I didn't mean to make you worry," Gordo said sheepishly. "I went to help Lyanna and Greta. But um… Greta didn't make it."

Bryn immediately paled. "Who's going to deliver my baby? Who's going to treat him if he gets sick?" Rhyella put her arm around her as she tried to console her.

When Gordo looked back at the village, all he could see was a great, dark, smoggy mushroom sprouting from the tree tops. "What happened anyway?" he asked Lorek. Lorek just shrugged. "Don't know."

"You don't think that girl had anything to do with it?" Lorek's face immediately went white and his jaw dropped. "Shit, did anyone grab the girl?" Gordo asked, but Lorek was already running toward the great plume of smoke. "What girl?" asked Bryn, confused, "Where is he going?"

Gordo began to chase after him, but his breath was still wheezy from smoke and his thick stumpy legs didn't allow him to move very quickly. "Lorek! It's too dangerous!" he shouted between gasps. Lorek continued his sprint. Gordo followed, until he was stopped abruptly by a firm grasp on his arm.

"And where are you going?" Gordo turned to face his father. His father was a big man like Gordo, with a wide build and a bit of a belly. He had a square set jaw, a deeply set frown, and a very strong grip. Gordo wrenched himself away. "I have to go help Lorek."

His father shook his head. "Lorek will be fine, and this tribe can't afford any more casualties. You will stay here," he said firmly. Gordo began to protest, "But-"

"No. You will stay here. Qorok perished in the fire, and I'm the new tribe leader. You will do what I say."

Gordo wanted to follow Lorek anyway, but he was already out of sight and probably wouldn't be able to help in time anyway. So he was forced to sit and watch and wait as his home and childhood dissipated in a great plume of smoke, and possibly his best friend along with it.

_Well shit._


End file.
